Settings Injection
Workspace creation is not only a directory copy. The launcher composes the settings that make an agent useful in that repo: instructions, persona, skills, and optional AI provider credentials.
The goal is simple: when the CLI starts, it should already know what kind of workspace it is in, which OpenAlice tools are available, and which model/provider config it should use.
Instruction files
Templates author one neutral instruction.md. At creation time OpenAlice writes the composed instruction into the filenames expected by the selected agent family:
CLAUDE.mdfor Claude Code.AGENTS.mdfor Codex, opencode, pi, and other agent CLIs that follow the shared convention.
The content is identical where possible. One source keeps Claude, Codex, and other agents from drifting into different task definitions.
If injectPersona is enabled for the template, the user's persona override is composed into this instruction file. The persona source lives in OpenAlice's file-backed config system, not in the template itself.
Tool skills
Templates decide whether the agent should receive OpenAlice's CLI playbooks:
| Template key | Effect |
|---|---|
injectTools | Injects the per-CLI playbook skills for alice, alice-workspace, alice-uta, and traderhub |
bundledSkills | Copies template-specific skill folders into the workspace |
injectPersona | Composes the user's persona into the instruction file |
self-scheduling is always injected so any workspace can understand self-describing issue files and scheduled runs.
AI provider config
The model runs inside the selected CLI, so OpenAlice writes that CLI's native config from the central AI Provider vault.
- Claude Code receives an
anthropic-wire credential when one is injected, or falls back to its own login. - Codex receives an
openai-responses-wire credential when one is injected, or falls back to its own login. - opencode / pi have no subscription login fallback, so they need a compatible injected credential.
The Web UI exposes an AI Provider button per workspace with a test-before-save flow. A changed config must pass a one-shot probe before it can be saved, so bad keys and wrong endpoints are caught before the next agent run.
Template credentials
Templates can declare an optional agentCredentials map:
{
"agentCredentials": {
"codex": { "credentialSlug": "openai-main", "model": "gpt-5.4" }
}
}
This is the per-template counterpart to the user-level default workspace credential. When both exist, the template's agentCredentials wins for that agent. Built-in templates normally rely on the user's defaults instead.
Next Steps
- CLI Injection - See how the injected tools are exposed at runtime.
- AI Providers - Configure credentials in the vault.
- Workspace Templates - See the template metadata keys.